-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Hurricane experts are throwing cold water on an idea backed by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates aimed at controlling the weather .

Bill Gates and scientists have applied for patents aimed at reducing the strength of oncoming hurricanes .

Gates and a dozen other scientists have raised eyebrows by submitting patent applications for a technology to reduce the danger of approaching hurricanes by cooling ocean temperatures .

It 's a noble idea , given the horrible memories from Hurricane Katrina , which slammed into the Gulf Coast four years ago this week .

The storm , which rated a frightening Category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana , was blamed for $ 81 billion in damaged and destroyed property and the deaths of more than 1,800 men , women and children .

Skeptics applaud the motive of the concept but question its feasibility .

`` The enormity of it , in order to do something effective , we 'd have to do something at a scale that humans have never really done before , '' said Gabriel Vecchi , a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

How exactly would this hurricane-zapping technology work ?

Hurricanes are fueled by warm water , and cooling the waters surrounding a storm would slow a storm 's momentum .

According to the patents , many tub-like barges would be placed directly in the path of an oncoming storm . Each barge would have two conduits , each 500 feet long .

One conduit would push the warm water from the ocean 's surface down . The other would bring up cold water where it lies deep undersea .

World renowned hurricane expert William Gray , who 's been studying and predicting the storms for a half-century , also doubts whether the proposal would work .

`` The problem is the storms come up so rapidly , '' said Gray , a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University . `` You only get two to three days warning . It 's very difficult to bring up enough cold water in two to three days to have much effect . ''

The idea itself is n't groundbreaking , according to Gray , who said it could only be feasible if the barges were put into place at the beginning of hurricane season with the idea that storms will come .

`` But you might do all that , and perhaps no storms would come . That 's an economic problem , '' Gray said .

Even if the technology does work , Gray said it wo n't completely halt a hurricane .

`` There is no way to stop it . The storm might weaken in the center , but the outer areas would n't be affected much . ''

And flooding and storm surges are determined by these outer winds , Gray said .

When word of Gates ' five patent applications first made headlines in July , alarmed bloggers lit up the Internet , expressing fears that playing with ocean temperatures could lead to catastrophe , possibly forcing a storm in a different direction .

That 's not likely , said Kerry Emanuel , a professor in atmospheric sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

`` You 're doing something to the ocean that the hurricane would have done anyway , '' Emanuel said .

Cold water that churns up during a storm slows down a hurricane naturally . But the coldest water is usually at the rear of the storm , so sometimes it 's too late to weaken -LSB- the storm -RSB- , Emanuel said .

`` The key is doing it a little sooner than the storm itself does it and make -LSB- the hurricane -RSB- weaker than it would have been , '' he said . `` There are enough experiments to find out whether hurricanes ' natural cooling could steer the storm in a different location , and the answer is no , or it 's a very small chance . ''

While Emanuel believes the physics are conceivable , he says the cost of implementing the system should n't outweigh the benefit .

`` This would only be practical if the amount -LSB- of money -RSB- you spend doing this would be less than the damage caused by the hurricane , '' Emanuel said .

Gates and scientist Ken Caldeira , both listed as inventors on the patents , did not respond to CNN 's requests to comment about their venture .

The patents , which were only made public last month by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office , were filed in January by Searete LLC . The company is a subsidiary of Intellectual Ventures , an invention firm run by Microsoft 's former chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold .

A spokeswoman for Intellectual Ventures , which holds about 27,000 technology patents , did n't elaborate on the cost associated with the patent .

`` At this point , there are no plans for deployment , so there is no talk of funding , '' she said , adding that it could take up to 18 months for the patent application to be approved .

Regardless , inventors say that this technology is not something they 'll be rushing to use anytime soon .

`` This type of technology is not something humankind would use as a ` Plan A ' or ` Plan B , ' '' Paul `` Pablos '' Holman , an inventor in the Intellectual Ventures laboratory , wrote on the company blog .

`` These inventions are a ` Plan C , ' where humans decide that we 've exhausted all our behavior changing and alternative energy options and need to rely on mitigation technologies . If our planet is in this severe situation , then our belief is that we should not be starting from scratch at investigating mitigation options . ''

Hurricane expert Gray agrees .

`` I do n't think this is anything that 's going to be done in the next few decades in a practical sense , but maybe further down the line , '' Gray said . `` I would love to see Bill Gates , with all his money , use some of it to experiment . ''

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Hurricane experts doubt feasibility of Bill Gates-backed weather-control idea

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Idea is `` on a scale that humans have never really done before , '' says NOAA

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Renowned Colorado professor William Gray : It wo n't completely stop hurricanes

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Theory : Barges would cool ocean surface sapping energy from oncoming storms